June 2009

June 23, 2009

As I was someone who held an equivalent post, in all but title, to Ian Clement for eight years during Ken Livingstone's term as Mayor I cannot help but make some personal observations on what the latter's resignation reveals about Boris Johnson's administration.

Boris Johnson's administration has now suffered the enforced resignation of three Deputy Mayor's and two senior policy advisers in only a little over a year in office. It is worth recalling the reasons for each of their departures.

Deputy Mayor Ray Lewis was forced to resign for allegations of financial and sexual misconduct and then because he was proved to be lying about being a magistrate.

Deputy Mayor Ian Clement was forced to resign over misuse of a Greater London Authority corporate credit card - the extent of this misuse is still being looked at.

First Deputy Mayor Tim Parker, only a few weeks after assuming office, resigned after a power struggle in City Hall - in reality, to attract Tim Parker from business, he had been misled to believe he would have greater powers than he was actually granted and he quit when the reality became appaent.

Deputy Chief of Staff James McGrath was forced to resign for suggesting people from the Caribbean who did not like Boris Johnson as Mayor could go back there.

David Ross, was force to resign as Olympics adviser for not having declared that he had used £162 million of company shares as security for personal loans.

One could add, not it should be said for fraud but for politically misleading claims, Barclay's Capital head Bob Diamond - he was highly publicised during the Mayoral election as being in charge of the Mayor's Fund, and soon after the election departed for the US.

In contrast for eight years Ken Livingstone's office was subject to a relentless campaign in the Evening Standard declaring its officers to be 'cronies'. Boris Johnson, who has carefully deleted his Manifestos and other campaign material from the internet, joined in such claims. In that entire eight years there was only one enforced resignation of anyone of equivalent seniority to those who have resigned from Boris Johnson's administration. Just to complete the picture, after Ken Livingstone left office his Mayor's Office was investigated by a totally biased kangaroo court, masquerading as an 'independent investigation', headed by Tory Patience Wheatcroft who found... nothing.

Given the comparative records of these two administrations (five enforced resignations in fourteen months versus one forced resignation in eight years) it would be personally pleasant to receive an apology from the journalists who wrote such articles but naturally I do not expect it - people who were prepared to be the instruments of such a campaign in the first place are not the type of people to let their views be disturbed by facts. Anyway politics in London has become a somewhat more hygenic business with the change in ownership of the Evening Standard - so we may pass on at the personal level.

But the record should be made clear politically. Compared to what has been shown about Boris Johnson's administration Ken Livingstone's office was one of the cleanest administrations to have been seen - Patience Wheatcroft was not looking to exonerate people when she carried out the investigation which found nothing!

There were, and are, big differences in policy between Ken Livingstone's administration and Boris Johnson's which are not invented but real. But the campaign carried out by the then owners of the Evening Standard, and Boris Johnson, against Ken Livingstone's office was one of the dirtiest seen in politics. As more and more wheels keep falling off Boris Johnson's administration that fact stands out more and more clearly.

I don't care about the personal aspect. Setting the political record straight is important.

PS A story has just been published on the Evening Standard website stating that Ian Clement falsely claimed for meals with political figures while in fact entertaining a lover. If true this of course places the Ian Clement matter in a still more serious light. Making such false claims would be fraud.